When We Stand Together
by Chibi-Kogitsune
Summary: Rukia waited for the pain of the Hollow's attack to hit her, yet she felt nothing . . . she opened her eyes, and cried out at what she saw; there was Ichigo, back facing the Hollow's attack, drenched in his own blood. Rated T for goriness and Hichigo's foul mouth. -SongFic- *UP FOR ADOPTION*


"Rukia, watch out!" shouted Ichigo frantically, but she wasn't moving fast enough—the Hollow was almost on top of her—unless . . .

Rukia could only stare in horror as the Hollow raised its dagger-like claws . . . but, for some reason, she did not feel any fear of death. She'd had a good life, too good, in her opinion, so, it didn't really bother her . . . she squeezed her eyes shut as the Hollow's arm swang down . . .

. . . waiting . . .

. . . waiting . . .

. . . why didn't she feel any pain? Was she dead? Alive? Or was she in the No-Man's-Land, between life and death? She could feel the blood soaking into her Shihakushō, but nothing else. She opened her eyes, and cried out at what she saw. There was Ichigo, standing with his back to the Hollow, which was slowly fading away . . . but that wasn't what caught her eye; it was the fact that he was drenched in blood. There was a massive wound on his back from the Hollow's claws. Tears welled in her eyes as she realised what he had done. He had jumped in front of the Hollow's attack, and taken all the damage . . . he did it to protect her. As she watched, Ichigo wheezed, a terrible, raking sound that chilled her to the bone, and blood oozed from his mouth. But it wasn't the dark, watery blood that you got from biting your tongue, the blood was bright red and frothy. It was the kind of blood that came from your lungs . . . this was bad . . .

Ichigo looked up. His eyes, glazed with pain, met hers. The look those eyes held in them tore at Rukia even more than the fact that he had sacrificed himself for her. Those eyes were filled with sadness, it almost seemed as if he were apologising to her . . . then, he collapsed on top of her, just as Kaien had done that night all those years ago. "I-Ichigo . . . ?" she whispered "Ichigo? . . . Ichigo . . . please, please . . . please . . ." She gasped as she felt the raindrops start to fall, every perfect sphere piercing her heart.

". . . Rukia . . ." her eyes widened with recognition and an unnerving sense of déjà vu numbed her body. Sode no Shirayuki slipped from her grip, but she didn't notice . . . she didn't care. "I dragged you into all of this . . . because I refused to use my limiter, and doing so caused that huge Hollow to show up—that put everyone in danger. . . . And now this has happened. I know that I've caused you pain. . . ." Rukia felt her eyes widen as she felt the weak pressure of Ichigo's embrace. ". . . I'm sorry, Rukia, you must be torn apart inside. . . . Thanks to you, I was able to protect my family . . . you gave up your powers so that I could become a Soul Reaper. If you hadn't done that, then none of us would be alive today . . . you gave up so much—"

"Idiot . . ." Rukia whispered, her voice thick with the tears that were flowing freely down her face. "Stop talking . . . you're just making yourself worse . . ." _If you keep talking, you really will die . . ._ she finished her sentence in her head.

"—even when I appeared before you in the Soul Society, all you worried about was . . . me." Ichigo took a shaky breath ". . . I've never told you this, but when you scold me, it makes me feel good, happy, like when you place your hand into the sunlight without noticing . . . and when you give me those lectures, it makes me feel like everything's gonna be ok, no matter what the situation is . . . I think the same goes for everyone. You came into my life unexpectedly, but somehow, it felt . . . right . . . and when you weren't there, I felt like something was missing, I kept expecting you to jump out of my closet yelling something about a Hollow. . . . and when you didn't, I felt almost disappointed . . . you've done so much for me and my friends, not to mention my family, that I couldn't possibly repay you in the space of a human lifetime . . . heh . . ." Ichigo gave a single laugh, but it seemed sad, pained, like he was saying goodbye to an old friend. "I guess I have another thing to thank you for . . . It's thanks to you, Rukia, that I can leave my heart behind . . . with you . . ."

_. . . Why? . . . _

Rukia returned the embrace, clinging to him, as if thinking that if she held on tight enough, Ichigo wouldn't die . . . ". . . It's not your fault . . ."

_. . . Why is this happening to me? . . . again? . . ._

But in the end, there was nothing she could do to stop his arms from going limp, from his eyes closing forever. . . .

* * *

Jushiro Ukitake gasped as he felt Ichigo Kurosaki's spiritual pressure slowly disappear. He knew that Rukia was with him, because it was he who had insisted that that be the case. He shunpo-ed over to where he assumed the two to be, and arrived just in time to see Rukia start to wail, clutching the limp form of Ichigo Kurosaki.

"I . . . ICHIGO!" Rukia wailed, releasing her sorrow to the world, "Ichigo! . . . No . . . no . . . please, no . . ." Rukia flinched as she heard the sound of footsteps coming towards her.

Ukitake looked at the scene in front of him . . . It was all too familiar, so similar to that cursed night fifty years ago . . .

_. . . This can't be happening . . . _

Rukia relaxed somewhat when she saw that it was her captain who had startled her. "Captain Ukitake, please, send a hell butterfly to squad four! There's no time to—"  
"Rukia, there is nothing we nor the members of the fourth squad can do . . . I'm sorry, but it's the truth." Rukia's shoulders sagged in defeat.  
". . . Yes sir, I . . . understand." she whispered.  
"The only thing we can do now," said Ukitake, "is tell his family and friends the news."  
"Yes sir." She whispered. It tore at Ukitake's heart to see Rukia, usually such a lively person, so broken.

He sighed. "We will go to his family first."  
"Please, sir?" she asked.  
"Yes?"  
"Could . . . could it be possible . . . for me to remain here, to make sure nothing happens to the— . . . to the— . . . b-body?"  
"Yes, of course." Ukitake knew her well. What Rukia was really saying was that she wanted to stay with Ichigo, that she didn't want to confront his family and friends, to see the look of panic, of knowing that it is true, but not wanting to believe, of utter defeat on their faces. . . . Not again . . . never again.

* * *

Ukitake paused in front of the Kurosaki Clinic. He had no idea whether or not the rest of Ichigo's family would be able to see him, but, according to Rukia, one of his sisters—Karin—had the same level of talent that Ichigo had before he became a Soul Reaper. He sighed; he would just have to take his chances.

He knocked on the door gently, not wanting to rudely awaken Ichigo's family, but there was no response. Then he noticed one of the devices that they called 'doorbells', he pressed the button and waited for a response. He didn't have to wait long.

"Coming!" A young girl's voice floated out. Suddenly, the door flung open and a girl, probably around fourteen, stood in the doorway.  
"Hello, I need to see your—" Ukitake cut himself off as he realised that the girl was looking _through_ him, not at him. "Ah, so she must be Yuzu . . ." he mused to himself.  
"Huh?" Yuzu said "How do you know my name?"  
"I beg your pardon?" he asked, genuinely surprised.  
"Oh, come on, you don't need to be so polite." Yuzu scoffed. "You see, I can't _see_ ghosts, but I can _hear_ them, and sometimes feel their presence. I'm sorry if I confused you for a bit there." she said, dipping her head slightly.  
"No, no," he replied "it's ok; I just need to see Karin."  
"Oh . . ." Yuzu seemed to do a double-take, "usually any ghosts that I can sense ask for my dad . . ."  
"Can your father see me?" he asked. Yuzu nodded her head vigorously; Ukitake assumed that she wasn't the type for subtle responses, even in subtle situations. "Yes, well, you see, it's funny; up until I was eleven, dad couldn't see ghosts any more than pigs can fly, but now he can . . . do you want to see him, or Karin?" she also seemed to be very impulsive.  
"I would like to see both of them, if you don't mind." He replied.  
"Ok! One minute," just as Ukitake was about to walk in, the door slammed in his face. He heard running footsteps, and then, "Karin! Dad! Someone wants to see you!"  
"Alright, alright, I'm comin . . ." another girl's voice came. _That must be Karin then . . . _Ukitake thought. "Come _on_ you stupid Goat-Chin! We don't have all day!"  
"Do I have to?" _That must be the father then . . . wait_ . . . _I know that voice . . ._ Ukitake mused.  
"YES! Now get out there!"  
"But . . . I don't know who it is . . . !"  
"Fine! _I'll_ go then . . ."

Another young girl, around the same age as Yuzu opened the door. "Ah, you must be—" but Ukitake was cut short.  
"What the—Captain Ukitake? What are _you_ doing here?" _That_ caught Ukitake by surprise. "Guess you're wondering how I know you, right?" she asked. "Well, whenever Toshiro came to the World of the Living, he stayed here. And whenever he wasn't off fighting Arrancars or Hollows or whatever, he'd quiz me with the names of all you captains. He'd drill me and drill me, and he even had photos of you all so I wouldn't have to make you turn around to see the number on your haori to tell who you were. Guess he thought I'd become a Soul Reaper like Ichigo, huh?" she laughed. "So anyway, you wanna see old Goat-Chin, eh? Well, can't really blame ya, since he's a—" this time, it was Karin's turn to be cut off, as Isshin poked his head around the doorframe.

"What the—Jushiro?!" cried Isshin.  
"I-Isshin?!"  
"What? You guys _know_ each other?!" Yuzu and Karin exclaimed.  
"Y-yes, how could I _not_ know your father . . . ? He was captain of squad ten before Toshiro . . ."  
"Dad . . . ?" Yuzu looked at her father. "Is this true . . .? Why haven't you told us?"

Isshin sighed. "It's true; I am the ex-captain of the 10th squad. But I wasn't faking it . . . two years before I married your mother, my powers abandoned me . . . I lost everything . . . just like Ichigo. I couldn't even see a common Plus. . . . I consulted with Kisuke Urahara at the time, hoping that he had a solution, but he could do nothing more than put me into a Gigai programmed to age. I hated lying to your mother, saying that I was just a human that, more than anything, wanted to see ghosts . . . but even more important to me than my powers, was your mother, and then, you three."

"That doesn't explain why you had to keep it from us even _after_ you got your powers back . . ." replied a somewhat indignant Yuzu, followed by a stomp on the foot by a peeved Karin.

"W-well, now that that's over, may I come in?" asked Ukitake.

Ukitake's question was met with a resounding "Eh?" as Karin paused in the middle of pulling out Isshin's beard, Yuzu in the middle of alternating between whining at her father and telling Karin to 'knock it off' and Isshin apologising repeatedly.

"Ah . . . yeah, sure you can, Jushiro." Isshin smiled, but in the place of the usual goofy grin was a strained one, almost as if he were trying to keep the smile there against its will; something that was an uncharacteristic trait for Isshin. Ukitake was about to ask about the matter, when it dawned on him.

_He knows . . ._ he realised, _he knows why I'm here._

_He knows that his son is dead._

* * *

**ok, so this is my lousy first-attempt at a song-fic, so i don't know how well it will go, and i know that it kinda disintergrates into dialog around the end of the chapter, but hey, i wrote this at 2 in the ****morning**** so you'll have to excuse it...i might fix it up later though...**

**Cheers!**

**Chibi-Kogitsune **


End file.
